Obviously, Obama is trying to make George W. Bush look bad by taking charge of the federal emergency response to Hurricane Irene, instead of what Bush did when Hurricane Katrina hit, which was to continue whacking weeds at his ranch in Texas (emphasis is mine):

I’m sure it’s a relief to everyone on the East Coast to know that Obama is personally directing hurricane response efforts. Never mind that he isn’t competent to organize a Little League baseball team; today’s charade obviously is a corollary of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, in which America’s mass media committed group malpractice, somehow managing to blame the inevitable consequences of a severe weather event, magnified by incompetent local authorities in New Orleans, on the Bush administration. Obama is setting the stage to receive praise, rather than blame, no matter what actually happens between now and when Hurricane Irene blows itself out.

This is one more step in the degradation of American politics. One hundred years ago, people understood that the president had nothing to do with hurricanes. Now, the president is expected to pretend to have control over more or less everything. This has something to do with the inexorable expansion of federal power, and also something to do with the dumbing-down of the American people.

If the baleful effects of Hurricane Irene actually turned on the personal efforts of Barack Obama, God help us. But of course they don’t. …

And he drones on like that for several more lines.

Of course, nobody with even the neurological connections that God gave an earthworm thinks or is saying that the government, or anyone, can stop a hurricane in its tracks and prevent 80-mph or more winds and torrential rain from blowing down trees or taking roofs off houses or submerging entire neighborhoods in several feet of floodwater. A developmentally delayed third grader would understand that the reason for having a federal disaster emergency response is to free up the money and logistical and technical resources with which to repair the human and property and economic damage done by the hurricane, after the hurricane is over — resources that local communities do not have, that only the federal government has.

But anyone who has spent any amount of time in political blogtopia knows that John Hinderaker does not have those neurological connections, and in fact, to put it bluntly, is dumber than a box of rocks.